Pepe's — Restaurant in Metropolitan Borough of Solihull

I recently had an extremely disappointing experience at Pepe’s in Castle Bromwich on Tuesday, 22nd around 19:30. I initially tried to call but couldn’t get through, which I assumed was due to them being busy. I decided to drive down to place my order in person instead. When I arrived, there were four visible staff members: two males cooking, one male assisting them, and a woman who was on the phone, presumably taking a customer order.

I patiently waited while she finished her call, expecting her to acknowledge me at some point, but she never did. After she hung up, instead of turning her attention to me, she started a conversation with the male staff member assisting the cooks. Still no acknowledgment or even a simple “I’ll be with you in a moment.” Another customer who was seated noticed this as well, and yet she completely ignored me. Even as I turned to walk out and paused, hoping for some sort of apology or explanation, she just continued her conversation with her colleague as if I wasn’t there.

One of the cooks even looked over and saw me waiting, but didn’t bother to let her know that there was a customer in need of service. The complete lack of professionalism was shocking. In my opinion, the woman should be fired for her poor customer service, and the cooks need to be reminded to notify the front when customers are waiting. It’s clear that they all need updated customer service training.

As someone who lives locally, I would have loved to support this place, but after such an experience, I won’t be returning. The conversation with her colleague certainly wasn’t important enough to justify keeping a customer waiting....

First time trying this specific Pepe's and I was extremely disappointed with the customer service that me and my partner received. The gentleman who served us was very blunt with us, we placed our order and specified that we wanted chilli sauce with our meal, we also asked if this was extra and he replied with 'no'. Roughly 20 mins later as we received the food my partner double checked with him that the chilli sauce was in the bag and he replied with 'yes I have put 2'. When we got home we checked the bag and there was no hot chilli sauce, there was just mayo and a mango looking sauce. I was really disappointed with this and so I called the store several times, spoke with the same gentleman who was very rude over the phone. He said that the chilli sauce costed extra and I then argued that we did question this and you had said 'no' as a member of staff I think he handled this very badly, he didn't offer us to come and collect the sauces (which we would have done), he didn't apologise, he just very bluntly suggested that we still have the mayo. This was not good enough as it ruined my meal and I did not enjoy the dry burger and chips. He definitely needs to be more professional in the future and treat paying customers with some respect. We will definitely not be coming back to this specific Pepe's and will stick to other Pepe's who employ staff that are friendly...

I have had takeout food from this restaurant many times. I must say over the last 6 months the food standard has gone down substantially. Chicken is over cooked / burnt and the food is always cold. I have always given them the benefit of the doubt. On this occasion I feel leaving a review is justifiable based on multiple orders for delivery, collection and eat in. Most recently I decided to dine in the restaurant to actually see if the food was fresh. This was a unpleasant experience as we ordered 4 items and all food was cold including the chicken and the bun was rock hard. We waited patiently for 25 minutes for an eat in order thinking the food would be fresh but it was the total opposite. I noticed more chit chat between the staff and less work going on. Overall the food standard has heavily dropped since this establishment first opened. I am really disappointed as I have given them multiple opportunities to rectify but it seems to get worse as time goes on and I am sure I am not the only one. I advise the owner to look into this immediately in regards to mainly the food standard and also train staff on simple customer service skills as it appears some staff look like they don’t want to be there otherwise you will be losing a lot...